Another observation. When the Russians have lots of minefields, the Germans either (a) run the risk of being blowed up but don't worry about them, (b) deploy lots of squads to run fewer people through them and in that way discover them, or (c) Search.

Ima elevate the Russian Booby Trap level from A to B on 19 Oct, and B to C on the 20th. That will put some casualties into the mere act of deployment.

Played through end German Turn 4. I remembered the tallies wrong last game. Current tally is six CVP dead Sovs and 13 German. The 10-3 leader who had already been wounded was finished off by another sniper shot and I am very glad to have him off the map. Fortunately, the Russians have a couple broken squads trapped in a crossfire in U3 wooden building. He's taking fire from X1 (20 flat -- 2x 4-4-7s with 2 MMGs and a 9-2 leader), from X7 (a 6+2), V6 (12 +1), and W7 (45LL antitank gun has him zeroed in). The two German squads have nowhere to route to, so I should be able to destroy them.

P was ultimately able to seize all of the L5-M6-N5 L1 stone building except for the basement of N5 by the end of his Turn 4 advance phase, but he's got no support to move further and his discovered a minefield in N5 so he can't exit the building from that hex without getting blowed up.

P has taken all of the B12-13-C-13 L1 stone building but not before B13 ground level blazed up from the fires my Russians set there. So on Oct 19 the building will be stone rubble with no level 1 from which he can get a good view. My Russians that were in that building have fallen back to B16, C17 and the B17 stone building.

P's advance along the F hexrow was stopped at F-13 when my hidden HMGs opened up and broke up a leader and supporting stack there.

The upshot of all of this is that most of his attack stalled for a bit and I will be able to eliminate 2 more German squads. Maybe more if I can bring down another round of my 80mm OBA (the one that I have already used). My plan is to bring that down vicinity of U3 to break up his attack on the NE corner.

He already has the 25 stone locations he needs for a Campaign Day Win, and that is fine with me. As I noted before, the challenge for the Russians on the first several days is to prevent a runaway movement into the factories, and build up force. I would like to end the CG day by killing at least 8 German squads while holding my losses to a minimum, so I have to eliminate at least 4 more squads. If I get another module out of that 80mm rather than red-carding it, I can achieve that goal. The northeast corner is mostly wooden buildings, wooden rubble, and debris, none of which offer very good cover from 80mm offboard artillery.

Oct 18 ends on Turn 6. It's a German CG day win (hex control) but a good day for the Russians. Total CVP are 8 dead Russians (4 squads), one antitank gun captured by the Germans but then destroyed by Russian artillery (2 points) plus the loss of an LMG and an MMG. Germans lost 24CVP ... 5 squads, 1 7-0 leader, 2 8-1 leaders, 1 10-3 leader, 1 PzIIIL and crew, and they wrecked one each of their HMG and MMG. A couple critical buildings burned to the ground too which is good for the Russians because it prevents the Germans from forming a good level 1 fire group.

During the interphase, one Russian squad battle hardens, and one Russian 8-0 leader promotes to 8-1.

Here is the perimeter and terrain map for the end of October 18. As you can see, the Germans gained 28 stone locations. Those are marked with black number showing the number of locations gained per hex. Also as you can see, hexes outlined in yellow with gray fill burned to the ground or collapsed under Russian artillery fire.

I marked the Russian wire locations with a red W. The red lines are Russian roadblocks. The Y7 roadblcok was particularly well chosen because for the price of one roadblock I have stone walls crossing the streets four ways. I only drew two of them. It means it's impossible to bypass the hex with a tank.

The I6 stone building had an abandoned Russian 45LL antitank gun on level 1 that the Germans captured. The whole building was fortified. Good use of a Russian 76* infantry gun in O-10 shot out all the upper level Germans, and in the last Russian game turn a 80mm offboard artillery critical hit leveled the entire building, destroying the captured gun. At the time, there were no Germans in the building. Most of them had broken and fallen back to G6-G7.

Played through Turn 3 end. Germans have their daily victory on captured Stone Locations, but only because I burned Stone Building B-17 (6 hexes, 18 stone locations). The fire was lit in B-19 Ground level and spread to C-20, so he can't advance further from that building on the current CG day (19 October).

Have resolved three rounds of FFE from my Russian medium artillery (120mm) but have rolled three 10s on a stack I really wanted to kill. With better luck it should have been reduced a bit by now. The dice taketh away. They also giveth. P got three German squads with LMGs and a leader with a radio into factory hex F-19 but I shot him out of it with multiple rate tears from a 76mm infantry gun and two MG stacks. Killed the leader with the radio and the unpossessed radio was left in the field. So that's one module of OBA he can't use on 19 Oct.

Ima also light O6 factory on fire today. P has captured half of it and I do not want to leave him any rooftop locations from which he can observe/bring down MG fire on moving Russkies.

Casualties very low so far for both sides. A couple squads each. One wounded leader each. Again, the Russians are picking off German leaders because P has also lost that 7-0 (who had a radio) and an 8-1.

The wire still seems to be puzzling P. If he ever figures out that dropping some Rocket OBA onto it is a cheap way to remove wire I will have to change things up, but so far that's not part of his tool kit.

Played through Turn 5. P continued to push cautiously. The 120mm OBA stopped the drive down the east side of Tramvanaya Street so far but the module finally red carded so P has an opportunity to get froggy. On the NE corner he brought up a PzIIIH but my Russians disabled it with a deliberate immobilization shot with an antitank rifle. An SMG squad (5-2-7) with ATR is closing in on it to try to wreck it in Close Combat in Turn6. That squad's flank is guarded from a Germany kill stack by an 80mm spotting round that I will set off as full FFE if the Germans try to get close to that squad.

So far P has found no good answer to the wire I've placed, so central factories are basically locked up tight in Russian control for the remainder of 19 October. He's also just starting to discover my dug in tanks. Those have provided a good answer to his HMG and MMG kill stacks because the tanks can shoot all day and not worry about mg kill stacks. He's going to have to close in on them with his own armor, or else spend some of his 20 October CPP on PaK38s or PaK40s.

So far 19 October casualties have been light for both sides with the Russians being slightly more effective overall. IIRC both sides are on the order of 10 CVP.

19 Oct ends after Turn 6. Final CVP 10 CVP dead Russians 11 CVP dead Germans. P busted and eliminated another one of his MMGs and he's low on leaders thanks to my sniper. Banner moments included deliberately immobilizing the PzIIIL with an ATR. I was unable to eliminate it. On Turn 4 my Russians captured a German radio and ran off with it to deny access to a module for the game. P wins the day on hex control largely because I burned down a building that had 15 stone locations. He should be concerned about that.

For 20 October I diced up 18CPP so I am flush with good stuff. As usual spent the max on fortifications. P has to figure out how to deal with wire. I will post my OOB after I've counted the units.

The upload feature has been buggered for a few days now, I noticed it happend after some maintenance was run on the site.

_________________I could be the catalyst that sparks the revolutionI could be an inmate in a long-term institutionI could dream to wide extremes, I could do or dieI could yawn and be withdrawn and watch the world go byWhat a waste...

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 3 guests

You cannot post new topics in this forumYou cannot reply to topics in this forumYou cannot edit your posts in this forumYou cannot delete your posts in this forumYou cannot post attachments in this forum